The ordinary Annual General Meeting 2020 of Barry Callebaut AG was held under the chairmanship of Markus R. Neuhaus, Vice-Chairman of the Board. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Annual General Meeting could not take place in the usual format. To protect the health of its shareholders and employees, Barry Callebaut decided that voting rights could only be exercised by submitting the voting instructions in writing or electronically to the independent proxy. 4,690 shareholders exercised their votes, representing 4,352,217 shares and equaling 79.3% of the issued share capital.
According to the company, all motions were adopted as proposed by the Board of Directors, including the reelection of Patrick De Maeseneire as Chairman and the election of Yen Yen Tan as new Board member. Suja Chandrasekaran, Board member since 2018 and member of the Nomination & Compensation Committee (NCC), stepped down from her functions. All other Board members, namely Patrick De Maeseneire, Markus R. Neuhaus, Fernando Aguirre, Angela Wei Dong, Nicolas Jacobs, Elio Leoni Sceti and Timothy Minges were reelected for another term of office of one year.
The shareholders also approved the proposed payout of a dividend of CHF 22.00 per share, corresponding to a stable payout ratio of 39%. The dividend will be paid to shareholders on or around January 7, 2021.